Easy yousers share their US stock picks for #playintheusa

For a lot of people, the idea of investing can be a little daunting. So many people feel embarrassed or scared that they don’t know enough, earn enough or have enough experience to start their journey. In truth, even beginners know more than they even realise. Most of our yousers are first timers, but you’d never say so after reading the below.

We asked our yousers to pick one of the 10 stocks in their #playintheusa portfolio and tell us a bit about it. Here are our favourite entries – some technical, some well researched, some going on gut and some just plain inspiring

Well done to Thabiso Dhlula – our Brand Manageress Carly Barnes picked your entry on Alphabet as the winner. Thabiso gets a Deadreck hamper worth R1000.

Thabiso Dhlula

My pick is Alphabet Incorporated. Firstly, I picked the stock because I think the company has a good position in the market and will continue to grow as more people have access to the internet, especially in Africa which will have a 50%+ higher population 2050 and that is a market that the company will monetize.

Secondly, I would like to become a shareholder because at the core of what Alphabet does is a passion to create value by enabling access to information. Google, for instance, has invested in building fiber networks in Africa and that is the type of forward orientation and passion to make information universally available that I admire about the company.

In my case, for example, I became interested in investing after a friend recommended the Warren Buffett way for me and I researched through Google to find a platform like EasyEquities as I wanted to start investing, the easy way.

Johann Rossouw

“I added some Berkshire Hathaway shares to my #playintheUSA portfolio for one reason – BUFFETT. Buying this share gives you access to the greatest investor of our time. PLUS you get the added bonus of being invited to the AGM. Woodstock for Capitalists!”

Waylon Smit

So! I’ve bought some Berkshire Hathaway. CEO, President and Chairman… TaDa! Warren Buffet Baby!

Berkshire Hathaway is the 4th largest public company in the world. Berkshire Hathaway also owns parts of, Coca-Cola, American Express, Fargo Wells, IBM, Apple as well as stakes in United Airlines, Delta Airlines, South West Airlines and American Airlines. Other stakes include Property, Financials, Insurance, Media and retail sectors. Berkshire Hathaway has grown on average in book value of 19% since 1965.

So, not only diversified and a great company, but also run by the wealthiest investor of all times, Warren Buffett, off course I want a piece of that #AmericanPie

Charles Savage

“I can honestly say that in a small way our journey with EasyEquities shares some of the experiences Elon Musk shares in this video about Tesla. It’s a business with a deep purpose trying to change the world with plenty of distractors. I love the emotion that he displays in this video, it speaks to his passion and belief in what he is doing. He backs himself to the very edge and won’t let anything stand in his way; attributes I think strong leaders need. Whilst Tesla won’t be the only benefactor of a move to electric cars and solar powered homes and and and… he is at least 2 years ahead of the pack and will benefit from this advantage. It also helps that its run by a South African.”

Tom Ridl

“My pick for this week is Tesla, Inc (TSLA). Tesla, co-founded by South-African born Elon Musk, makes premium electric vehicles, energy storage systems and solar panels. Their primary goal is to produce an affordable electric vehicle that will reinvent the automative industry, and they are poised to do so with the first new, $35,000 Model 3 electric compact sedan rolling off the production floor this last weekend. Tesla currently produces two other, more expensive models, the Model S sedan and Model X SUV. In 2016 Tesla produced 83922 vehicles (a 64% increase from 2015), and now with the Model 3 about to roll out, vehicle sales should start to accelerate. Tesla already has over 400,000 preorders for the Model 3.

The share price is currently quite high as investors have already priced in the impact of the Model 3, however the price has come down from a high of $387 to trade at around $313. Earnings per share are currently negative due to the development costs of the Model 3, however these should start to improve once production starts to ramp up and becomes more efficient.

Apart from vehicles, Tesla also produces a home battery system (Tesla Powerwall), and have recently announced innovative new solar roof tiles. Both of these businesses will continue to grow and generate more revenue over the coming months and years.”

Dirk Scheepers

“With a son of the African soil at the helm of Tesla, and a breakthrough in battery technology on the horizon that will give cars 1,000 miles of range, this company is a STEAL at $300+ a share. Naturally, other uses for improved batteries are legion, like power-wall and mobile phones (think days instead of hours on one charge) it only takes one breakthrough to revolutionize our world.

Ethan Garrod

“I was extremely excited when I read that EasyEquities was giving us the opportunity to invest in US stocks. For a while I've been looking for a platform on which I could invest in US companies. There were a number of stocks that I was interested in - Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Coca-Cola to name a few. The stand out company, however, was Elon Musk's Tesla.

There are a number of reasons why I chose Tesla, the first being that they are changing the world. Tesla aims to make electric vehicles mainstream with the ultimate goal of saving the world by reducing fossil fuel emissions. They have started a trend and many other car manufacturers are following in Tesla's footsteps.

Secondly, Elon Musk is the CEO, by investing in Tesla you are investing in Elon Musk. There is a reason he has been labeled the real-life iron man.

Thirdly, I believe that there is a tech bubble and that it is going to burst. Over the past few weeks the US tech stocks have taken a hit. At the time of writing this, Tesla has fallen from 383.45 USD to 316.05 USD, I believe this trend will continue for the next few weeks. This means that one will be able to buy Tesla stock at a relatively low price.

While I believe that Tesla may continue to fall, it is a share that cannot be excluded from your portfolio as it has tremendous long term potential.”

Johann Steenkamp

“From the founder, to the CEO, to the screws they use in their power packs, Tesla has grabbed my attention from the very beginning.

So why did I choose Tesla as one of my stock for the #playintheusa challenge?

Simple - Because I believe in them.

I believe in their ideals to promote and provide a safer, more efficient and environmentally friendly set of consumables.

And with the right support, I believe that they can not only achieve great things, but also set the bar high enough for all other to achieve great things.

Perhaps I'm an idealist, but Tesla has proven that even idealists have their place in the world and that "we" are the people making a difference.

Financially, Tesla has shown consistent growth, dipping only when they challenge perceptions.

This to me means that they are not only resilient, but that they are not focused around what the market might do.

Mohamed Ally

TESLA inc. is most definitely my favourite US brand. Maybe it is because one of the owners was born a South African and the company now has revenue in excess of $7 Billion. This showcases the potential us South Africans could have to make a positive impact in the world around us.

Given the operating model, and the industry the company play’s in – and considering the direction the world is taking with regards to technology, digitization, renewal energy – TESLA has already paved the way for exponential growth, not only in the company’s share price.

TESLA has already etched themselves as market leaders in their industry. We talking first electric sports cars, space transport (even stopping a second to think about what that exactly means is already mind-blowing enough), energy storage – Basically moving the world into a new, technologically advanced environment to play in. All else equal, this is definitely, it.

Mark Goosen

“My favourite US brand in week 1 is Visa (V:US). According to Euromonitor International, consumer card payments surpassed cash payments for the first time in 2016, registering $23.3 trillion globally. Consumer card payments and mobile-commerce will see a 6.6 percent and 23 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR), from 2016-2021, respectively whereas global cash payments will register a CAGR of 1.3 percent

As a card payment provider, Visa is perfectly positioned to capitalise on this shifting payment landscape. Additionally, ecommerce sales globally are growing, as evidenced by Amazon, Alibaba and TenCent’s growth over the past year, not to mention the FANG stocks amazing rise in 2017. All of this points to increased card payments and fewer cash payments.

When comparing Visa to Mastercard, Visa’a PE of 29,6 seems to be more favourable than Mastercard’s PE of 31.16, if only slightly.”

Carly Barnes

Until a few weeks ago I’d never heard of Nvidia, but when a few yousers mentioned it in the EasyEquities #thatsnotmyname campaign I was intrigued. I Googled it and saw that it is a tech company wanting to develop cloud computing, virtual reality, driverless cars and artificial intelligence. My gut tells me this is an industry on the up, and so I read on. The CEO is a big shareholder which makes me think that someone who knows the business really well is invested in it – can’t be a bad thing. Financial experts said it would do aight, and when it released its financial results it had done better than what they thought. That kind of makes me feel like it has some underestimated potential. I’m not a huge fan of graphs, but when I saw a squiggly line steeply climbing up on Nvidia’s valuation, it gave me that last nudge to invest.

Lia Mulder

#Autodesk #playintheUSA #forthewin

I believe in investing in a stock that is a necessity- Autodesk is a vehicle for success for future building work.

Building technology will keep on evolving. Autodesk is the tech tool for engineers and architects alike to make buildings and bridges a reality. If Autodesk products keep on evolving the way that they do, the share price will do the same. The products can easily monopolize the tech building tool markets.

Autodesk is without a doubt a long-term investment for me!

Francois Swanepoel

The choice I made is based on past performance, a dividend and my personal interests:

Texas instruments is in the semiconductor business, as an electrical engineering student at the University of Pretoria, Texas instruments builds reliable and some of the best integrated chips used in electronic circuits (I use them!). In today’s world semiconductors are used everywhere and will continue to be used in the future. With a dividend yield of 2.55% according to Google finance and a growth of 25.6% over the past year, with future growth almost inevitable I will surely hold Texas Instruments!

Thabani Ntshiza

Alibaba- chose this share as we are definitely moving away from brick n mortar and digital is the future for everything

Sonwabiso Damana

I bought stocks in Alibaba because I believe there is a lot of potential on the platform. If it moves at current pace, it could reach Amazon levels.

This company solves the problem of being overcharged for bulk purchases within South Africa. It exposes us to an international market to buy bulk products from.

Martinus Jakobus Sonnekus

Buying US shares is not as painful as pulling a tooth or getting brain freeze. It’s easy with EasyEquities. Take the US listed Henry Schein, for example: record sales of $11.6B in 2016 and growing at a compound annual rate of ±15% since 1995. Now that will make any EasyEquities Investor smile. So bring on those Henry Schein smiles...

Eric Proudfoot

Amazon… should have been named Amazing. Wow, what a story!!!!!

All too often, investors focus is on profit, profit and more profit.

So the pressure of running a business is generally skewed to 'how much profit have you made or why the decline on profits?’. As the management team, it takes real guts to rebuff these pressures and Mr Bezos and has team have been rewarded for their reinvestment strategy by becoming one of the 3 most valuable company in the world by market cap.

Ironically, I can’t wait for the day when he turns on the profit ‘taps’ and the money starts gushing out.

It’s a BUY BUY BUY in my books.

Jarrett Jordaan

Amazon (AMZN)! has to be the titan in retailer at the moment. The reason I chose this stock is for its diversification. The company in itself constantly reinvents itself. They have a finger in so many different things, globally! Most people know them for their shopping site amazon.com. But their real strength and future dominance is in the Cloud Infrastructure world. If you are not in IT, their revenue last year for AWS was more than $15 Billion. Not bad for a shopping site. I can only see further growth in all things tech from them. They are up there with Alibaba, Google and Apple as stocks that will change the world. I remember wanting to invest in them at the end of 2013 while chatting to one of their employees based in Cape Town. At the time the value was about $350, it's close to $1000 now. Been waiting for a feature like this on an affordable trading platform for years! Thanks EasyEquities.

Eric Maluleke

I chose to invest in Comcast because of its future growth prospects. Like Multi-Choice, it dominates the US pay TV market with about 29 million subscribers. It produces most of its content. It is a good dividend payer.

Valentine Madzhie

Twitter is one of the most used platforms by businesses and youth. It's a quick way to spread word and to spread reach about yourself, your business or growing your brand.

I bought the Twitter shares, because I made most of time on it. If I need to express myself I use Twitter, if I'm promoting something I use Twitter. I'm also a social media influencer so it only made sense to me to invest in the brand I love and use the most.

I believe it'll do well in the market because that's where youth spend their time and businesses are now beginning to see the benefits of using twitter to spread the world about their companies.

Louise Kock

Thank you for making it so easy to invest via Easy Equities. I learned the hard and expensive way with equities, as a novice, on other platforms until I found Easy Equities via a TV interview from one of you with Warren Ingram and Curo on Smart Money. Through this last year I have learned a lot! Gained some and lost some! All a great learning curve!

I am delighted to be part of the #playintheusa game and is excited to see what the future holds for EasyEquities. I am still learning regarding the US stocks but keep my ear to the ground. After being a Facebook junkie for 9 years, I know that this stock can only do good because in the past 9 years I could see how Facebook progressed. I believe they are forward thinkers. I love this stock.

Also who can go without Google! Therefore, Alphabet will be my second choice. I think it can do very well.

This is just my two cents regarding the US stocks. Thank you for your commitment to your investors as well as the constant communication with us.